Short Quiz: Are You an Imaginative Conservative?

Let’s play 20 Questions! Take the following simple diagnostic test to see if you are an Imaginative Conservative or something else. Or better yet, try it on your friends so you’ll know whether to pay for the next round of drinks or hail a taxi.

Answers, scored at the bottom, are the author’s interpretations and do not necessarily represent the official policies of this website or the views of Russell Kirk, Edmund Burke, Christopher Dawson, Irving Babbitt, C. S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein, T. S. Eliot, Alexis de Tocqueville, Saint Augustine of Hippo, John Adams or Almighty God. But they might. Choose one answer for each:

1) Greed is:

(a) A selfish misperception to be inevitably overcome by historical forces;
(b) A social problem for government, worsened by commercialisation;
(c) Good, maligned by those who misunderstand the dynamics of capitalism;
(d) Bad among Democrats, good among Republicans;
(e) A sin to be opposed by every person, family, and generation.

2) My idea of entertainment is:

(a) Attending an Occupy protest and getting arrested;
(b) The new Miley Cyrus video on Millennium Development Goals;
(c) Re-reading an Ayn Rand novel for the eighth time;
(d) Watching American troops invade foreign countries;
(e) Fairy tales and old or new myth in books, comics, and film.

(a) Yes, unfolding through history via the dialectical process;
(b) No, it changes according to our needs and values;
(c) No, it is unique for every individual;
(d) Possibly, with America’s global enforcement;
(e) Yes, shown by reason, culture, history, and divine revelation.

5) Ideology is:

(a) A necessary codification of class consciousness;
(b) A necessary codification of Progressive values;
(c) A necessary codification of consistent rights and liberty;
(d) A necessary codification of national priorities;
(e) What simpletons crave when too lazy to read or think.

6) I’d rather bequeath to my grandchild:

(a) A classless world of true equality;
(b) Appreciation of diversity and social engagement;
(c) A fortune in bullion offshore;
(d) A global empire of American greatness;
(e) My handmade wooden chair and skill to build another.

7) Milton’s Paradise Lost is:

(a) 17th Century religious brainwashing and class oppression;
(b) A seminal text to be deconstructed by its period and intentions;
(c) Irrelevant, of no practical use to me;
(d) Good to cite defending Western Civilisation, bad to read;
(e) Good, but not as great as Dante’s Divine Comedy.

8) God is:

(a) A delusion, the opiate of the masses;
(b) A delusion, but religion can build social commitment;
(c) Authoritarian, so no help to liberty or my net worth;
(d) The American flag personified in all His wrath;
(e) Love.

9) What is the role of order in society?

(a) Oppression unless directed by the proletariat;
(b) A helpful precondition for social uplift and improvement;
(c) Oppression unless spontaneous through a free market;
(d) Essential in airports;
(e) The starting point and core of any civilization.

(a) Inevitable via scientific progress and Hegelian synthesis:
(b) Slow but possible if government and civil society work together;
(c) Nobody’s business apart from each individual’s;
(d) Nearly present among we American intellectual elites;
(e) A bad joke, impossible while we live as mortals.

(a) What it cost the exploited toiling classes;
(b) Can it help boost equality and minority empowerment;
(c) What it cost and could I steal it when nobody’s looking;
(d) What it costs to paint in a big American flag;
(e) Could we create something as timeless, virtuous, and inspirational?

18) My ideal garment is:

(a) Black, revolutionary and utilitarian;
(b) Gray and dependably inoffensive;
(c) Flamboyant, costly, and individualistic;
(d) A uniform;
(e) Could you repeat the question? I was reading.

a) A harmful means of oppression;
b) A harmful means of oppression;
c) A harmful means of oppression;
d) A useful means of oppression if redefined selectively;
e) A helpful guide from our Living Past.

Scoring: take two points for each correct (e) answer, and one for any other. Choosing mostly (a) suggests you’re a doctrinaire Marxist and either over age 60 or trying very hard to be retro; (b) denotes a Progressive who probably got here by mistake; (c) a materialist libertarian anarcho-capitalist; and (d) a Neo-con, another kind of false-conservative nationalist or else you had three too many at the VFW hall. If you think you’re a libertarian and chose (e) almost as often as (c), you may be falsely diagnosed and need to seek treatment immediately. A total score below 32 suggests that you need to visit this website more often; higher scores imply that you’ve found your way home already. Score a perfect 42 or want to next time? Visit the The Imaginative ConservativeBookstore and buy a well-deserved treat for yourself or a loved one!

The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politics—we approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility.

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

Stephen Masty (1954-2015) was a Senior Contributor to The Imaginative Conservative. He was a journalist, a development expert, and a speechwriter for three US presidents, British royalty and heads of government in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. He spent most of his adulthood working in South Asia including Afghanistan, and he was a writer, poet and artist in Kathmandu.

I’m not sure that the e’s are always right, and the c’s and d’s are always wrong, as it were. (The a’s and b’s are pretty well just wrong, however…). I think it is perhaps more like e is the overarching canopy, and with that in place some c’s and d’s are in there, as sort of second best, as it were. Making money is important; online community is real; and Red Bull is one of life’s essentials for example. That said, they are not as good as their respective slate of e answers…..complimentary, perhaps….minor themes to be explored under the canopy of tradition and moral order. But the a’s and b’s? Well they just need to be defeated and all of the c’s, d’s and e’s should agree with that…..

ROFL
Being somewhat stodgy, I naturally tended to the culturally correct answers, in spite of the obviously poor other choices.
My only criticism of the “survey’, however is — what Sassenach heathen doesn’t like Scotch?

Thank you, Mr Naas. When I lived in Scotland my circle drank whiskey before supper, with fruits of the vine during and after; apart from St Andrew’s Day dinners, Hogmanay and Burns’ Nicht. Although some Scots, chiefly in Glasgow and Dundee, apparently drink methylated spirits around the clock!

Great quiz. Sent it around to relatives for propaganda purposes. I am related to libertarians and neo-cons, but they are redeemable, I just know it. As for 10, I love my herbal tea and it sits better with me than alcoholic beverages. I don’t look for Fair Trade as much as Organic. 15 is a tough one….what Community? My life outside of family is dominated by associations of various kinds. I don’t have a community – I don’t even have a neighborhood. So I was torn between d. Useful and the obvious “right” answer. Thanks for some fun.

Love it! What waters of inspiration are you nipping to keep producing such remarkably witty essays?
My only deviance from an all E score is an occasional vodka martini before dinner. But for after dinner, brandy and port win out, or course.
Hope we will have the opportunity to hoist a few of these with you before long!

This is a brand of conservatism that I have never in my fifty plus years of reading and studying history, political history, economics, biography, and classical fiction, that I have not seen practiced in politics since the administration of Theodore Roosevelt. I have read most of what Kirk, Brownson, Buckley, Friedman, Haye, Nash, and others have written about conservatism. I agree with most of what I’ve read but seen little of it practiced.

If the quiz were a bit more serious, I’d be delighted to get the perfect score of ’42’ (which I did), 🙂 TIC remains among my Top favourite sites. I read it daily, along with the TAC (The American Conservative). Absolutely indispensable and priceless reading these two sites (and oh, the universitybookman site, too). For the record, I’m arguably more often characterised as a a “paleo-conservative”. But I much prefer the sound and feeling of being an ‘imaginative’ conservative. 🙂

The Imaginative Conservative is sponsored by The Free Enterprise Institute (a U.S. 501(c)3 tax exempt organization). Your donation to the Institute in support of The Imaginative Conservative is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. (Gifts may be made online or by check mailed to the Institute at 9600 Long Point Rd., Suite 300, Houston, TX, 77055.)